He wrote me: "This is the picture of a large tom I shot on opening morning at 9 a.m. The beard length was 8 inches and the spurs were 1 inch, but the impressive part is that he weighed in at 26.7 pounds.

"According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, that is the 7th all time as far as weight in New York State. Jim Fredenburg from Deruyter gets credit for calling the bird in for me."